Go Bo Diddley!

Gauche plaid dinner jackets. Heavy horn-rimmed glasses. Rectangular guitars. Big lumbering Bo Diddley is gone at 79.

you shoulda heard just what I seen...

My first exposure to Bo Diddley was in 1959: "Say Man" was a "dozens" showdown between Bo & his maracas shaker Jerome Green. That was the only Bo Diddley single I owned until 1970, when I bought his first single "Bo Diddley"/"I'm A Man" at an electronics shop, just like in the old days (errata: that same night I saw The Who for the first and last time). And that summer I bought "Say Man Back Again" which unsuccessfully revisited the same format of the original.

you so ugly that the stork that brought you in the world oughta be arrested...

I was gonna rattle off all of the British Invasion groups that brought Bo to a new audience (beat group fans were not necessarily the same as "golden age" fans), but what do you care? Needless to say, a lot of people picked up on him. Maybe it was his basic "shave-and-a-haircut-2-bits" signature beat which he claimed was discovered by mistake when he tried to play the marching drumbeat of "Yellow Rose Of Texas".

I look like a farmer but I'm a lover...

He toured with The Clash in 1980. He made his own guitars. He was so bad he had not one but numerous songs named after himself - the aforementioned "Bo Diddley", "Hey! Bo Diddley", "Bo Diddley's A Gunslinger", "The Story Of Bo Diddley", "Diddley Daddy" (backed up by The Moonglows)... there are probably more. His backup guitarist was called "The Duchess", and she died a year or two ago. And Jerome went quite awhile back. So obviously I'm figuring they'll start up again soon.

I'm a roadrunner honey, and you can't keep up with me...

When they say "play that Bo Diddley beat..." everyone knows what that means. Another originator is gone.